The World Health Organisation recognises World Mental Health Day on 10 October every year. Helping our students develop a better understanding of their mental health – and it’s equal importance with their physical health – is key to living a better life. Though anxiety has risen among young people overall, studies confirm that it has skyrocketed in girls. Research finds that the number of girls who said that they often felt nervous, worried or fearful jumped 55 percent from 2009 to 2019, while the comparable number for adolescent boys has remained unchanged.

Anxiety is one of the most common mental health problems as well as misunderstood emotions of all time. Anxiety is a normal, healthy emotion meant to warn us of danger. If we didn’t experience any anxiety, we wouldn’t run out of a burning building, nor look both ways before crossing a street. But no one’s anxiety alarm bell is 100% foolproof. There are times when our mind and body respond as if we are in a life or death situation – even though we are not in any real danger. For some of our students, presenting their ideas to their peers at the front of a class or being presented an award in a school assembly might trigger an anxiety alarm bell, even though neither situation may be considered challenging to their friends. Helping our students to learn how to separate real alarms from false alarms is key to helping them manage their anxiety. Simply recognising that our brain and body are overreacting to a seemingly harmless event can empower us to take positive action. Acknowledging that we are not in any real danger can sometimes be enough to move forward in a productive manner.

Anxiety isn’t always rational. We might feel anxious when we are safe and sound in our classroom. Or we might experience a random spike when we are wanting to play with someone new at lunchtime. How we respond to increased anxiety makes a big difference in how long it lasts and how intense it feels. If we panic and convince ourselves that such discomfort is unbearable, or that our anxiety is a sure sign of impending doom, we will stay in an uncomfortable heightened state. But if we embrace it – rather than fight it – we might feel better faster. Through the many new experiences which each school year brings, we learn to accept that anxiety feels uncomfortable, whilst reminding ourselves that we can tolerate distress.

Most of us refer to anxiety as an emotion. But anxiety also affects our brain and our body. When we feel anxious, we’re more likely to think about things that fuel our anxiety. We might ruminate on bad things that happened in the past, or we may dwell on catastrophic predictions about the future. Our body responds accordingly. Teaching our students to calm both their mind and body when they feel anxious makes it much easier to face anxiety-provoking situations.

One way we support our students to deal with anxiety is to address the environment. Changing the situation can change how we feel. But it’s important to consider how we address the situation, because it can be healthy or unhealthy. Avoiding a classmate who behaves unkindly might be a healthy way to cope with your anxiety for a short while. But not tackling a presentation to your peers for House Captain elections can compound your anxiety in the long haul, as well as missing out on a leadership opportunity which you aspired to gain.

Instead of changing the environment, we teach our daughters to manage their anxiety by changing how they respond to the environment. In this rising tide of stress and anxiety associated with psychological pressure lies the surprising and underappreciated value of stress and anxiety: that stress can helpfully stretch us beyond our comfort zones, and anxiety can play a key role in keeping girls safe. When we emphasise the benefits of anxiety in this way, we can help our daughters take them in their stride.

But no parents want their daughter to suffer more emotional overload, and so it may be helpful to turn to the many facets of girls’ lives where tension takes hold: their interactions at home, pressures at school, social anxiety among other girls and among boys, and their lives online. As we move through the layers of girls’ lives, we learn the critical steps that adults can take to shield their daughters from the toxic pressures to which our culture – to include we, as parents and educators – subjects girls.

Anxiety disorders may include conditions such as panic, social anxiety, eating disorders or sleep deprivation, which in turn have a negative impact on our social and educational function. The good news is that anxiety is treatable. Healthy coping skills like going for a walk, practising meditation in our Wellbeing lessons, mindful colouring and journaling in our Chill Club, or engaging in deep breathing exercises with our Listening Ear or School Counsellor calm our mind and our body. It is important to assess the current coping skills we use. Everyone has room for improvement when it comes to practising healthier ways to deal with anxiety-provoking situations.

Through the power of talking with someone we trust, we teach our students that sharing a problem is often the first step to facing our fears. Championing good mental health for the students in our care is not just a professional duty which we respond to, but rather a moral obligation in a challenging world. Never has this been more relevant than today.

Nisha Kaura
Head, Junior School